Black-necked Stilt

Marana, United States

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Artist's Description

Black-necked Stilt

Canon Powershot SX40HS, Marana, AZ June 2013

The elegant Black-necked Stilt is found year round in shallow ponds and marshes, mostly in freshwater and brackish environments. Like Avocets, stilts eat mostly tiny invertebrates prey, but they usually forage by picking prey singly with their long, thin, pointed bill. Stilts often serve as sentinel species for other shorebirds, alerting them to intruders with noisy calls.

VOICE Very vocal; a sharp, yipping vik! or wik!, often in long series.

INTERESTING FACTS

The Black-necked Stilt was first described 1776 by Philipp Ludwig Statius Müller, a German zoologist.

They have the second-longest legs in proportion to their bodies of any bird, exceeded only by flamingos.

They feed in both salt and fresh water on half webbed feet that allow them to swim, although they rarely do.